Happy (belated) birthday Dubs.
Most Heartbreaking Loss
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Vdubs
Hall of Famer
It wasn't. Strangely, we have rarely if ever been in a GF on my birthday (Sep 27)apart from 08. That was definitely the one that got away.
Somewhat rare for mine too.
It would have fallen on the day of the 2011 GF, but they stopped the run of late-mid September 20s and placed the game a week later on October 1st (which has happened a few times).
2022 the GF did fall on my birthday, which was pretty neat.
2013 Prelim Final.
2005 Semi Final.
But 2008 Grand Final has no peer. That was dead set fuçķed.
2005 Semi Final.
But 2008 Grand Final has no peer. That was dead set fuçķed.
And to think you were accused at one point of being "deliberately contrarian"
Don't quite understand. I agree with the ones posted and added some new ones to further the discussion.And to think you were accused at one point of being "deliberately contrarian"
"Anyone who says the 2008 GF, is an idiot" would be deliberately contrarian.
I've not seen a single BF poster bagging Malcolm Blight in the 20 years I have been on this board, I think now there is a solid realisation that (a) Geelong never quite had the cattle in the 90s, and (b) he was pretty clearly an excellent September coach.
You having a go at me?
I can barely think the numbers '08 let alone discuss.Not at all, we've already dissected the Hell out of that one anyway.You having a go at me?
I think I replied to iameviljez when he said anyone who didn't nominate 2008 was as dumb as a bag of rocks (paraphrasing).
There's so many other painful games that can get a bit of love!
Bahahaha, might be using some poetic licence there
I thought you'd enjoy that one.
Not the most heartbreaking but one of the early ones that I remember as a kid was a game circa 1988, cats at home v swans.
We were favourites I think but the swans kicked away in the 3rd only for the cats to make a comeback late to get within a kick with seconds left.
Enter a young Robert Scott who marks and ends up with the kick after the siren from 30 out on a difficult angle.
It comes off the boot nicely and it dead set looks like it's sailing through for a goal... But hold on, what's that? The goalpost is shaking. It's called a behind! Cats lose! What the? Could the ball really have hit the post that hard to make it shake like that, what seems like half a second after the ball crossed the goal line? Was there some tactics going on in the goal square from the swans players?
No goalline tech so this remains to me one of life's great mysteries. All I know is that, at the time I was as shattered as any under 10 year old can be, which is pretty darn embarrassingly shattered.
We were favourites I think but the swans kicked away in the 3rd only for the cats to make a comeback late to get within a kick with seconds left.
Enter a young Robert Scott who marks and ends up with the kick after the siren from 30 out on a difficult angle.
It comes off the boot nicely and it dead set looks like it's sailing through for a goal... But hold on, what's that? The goalpost is shaking. It's called a behind! Cats lose! What the? Could the ball really have hit the post that hard to make it shake like that, what seems like half a second after the ball crossed the goal line? Was there some tactics going on in the goal square from the swans players?
No goalline tech so this remains to me one of life's great mysteries. All I know is that, at the time I was as shattered as any under 10 year old can be, which is pretty darn embarrassingly shattered.
- Sep 15, 2005
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Cheers for the footage! From his own reaction I think it probably did fade and hit the post. But it was definitely one of those games where you kept having your hopes raised and then dashed over and over again.
- Jun 5, 2007
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95 I was snowed in with a mad Blues supporter all day. It was a most hideous and unforgettable memory.All of the GF losses burn but the circumstances of 1995 and 2008 really hurt.
1995 - AFL Member , went with a close Cats mate - got there early and sprinted to front row,wing second level.
Fantastic spot , pretty much knew we were gone after 5 minutes - absolutely gutted for the whole day
2008 - Skiing in NZ , front row seats in front of an open fire at a Pub in Queenstown , huge anticipation - saw us play non Cats footy and the Hawks rush through a gazillion behinds , the Mooney misses and Dew and Rioli ripping us new ones....scarred for life
I've wiped the nineties from my memory. A passing parade of disappointments.
You can see in the replay that a cluster of players mobbed the goalpost and shook it. No way an air conveyance on its own could shake it like that!
Shell
Premium Platinum
I started following footy in 1993. I knew we were no chance in 94. I thought we were half a chance in 95. And a huge chance in 97.
The ‘08’ GF was terrible but my vote goes to the Nick Davis game.
I had never forcibly thrown a remote control before that game (and haven’t since).
From memory we were massive underdogs that day and we were within seconds of snatching it.
So disappointing.
I had never forcibly thrown a remote control before that game (and haven’t since).
From memory we were massive underdogs that day and we were within seconds of snatching it.
So disappointing.
I mean, it's obviously OK to have a plan and all, but to not make the change when it was clear as anything what was happening (with Taylor on Lynch) is something which I will never quite understand.
One of the most terrible losses ever for our club and which definitely cost us another flag. Completely threw it away by some appalling coaching as you allude.
Yeh that loss really stung.
I remember being in shock when the siren sounded. The thought of progressing to face St Kilda again at the MCG in a knock out preliminary final would have been huge.
Probably wouldn't have beaten Sydney in the grand final but I reckon we would have beaten St Kilda.
Shell
Premium Platinum
I stormed out of the pub without saying goodbye to anyone
Shell
Premium Platinum
That comeback by WC at KP, who were down by about a thousand goals at half time, was a shocker.
- Sep 15, 2005
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I'm old enough to have experienced nearly all of the horror stories.
I have the scars; there's genuinely some emotional difficulty in re-living the brutal Football/Life lessons Geelong handed me in my Formative Years.
For me, it is chronological; i.e. each Heartbreaking Loss logically succeeded the next in maximizing pain and heartache.
1987 - Rd 22 Geelong vs Hawthorn.
Geelong and Hawthorn have been bitter rivals for 40 years now, and those games span my adherence to the Cats.
I've mentioned this in days of yore, but the rest of my family supports Hawthorn; I stubbornly - and for a long time, seemingly foolishly - supported Geelong for reasons that are tangential even to myself. For the longest time my recalcitrance bore no fruit.
This game was particularly harsh in teaching me that there ARE NO FOOTY GODS.
Hawthorn didn't even have to show up to this game. They were assured their Top 2 spot and could neither improve nor disadvantage their position.
Geelong however, had not played Finals for 5-6 years (which spanned my time supporting them) and had to win the game to make the Final 5.
For Geographical reasons I didn't attend many games as a kid; I was more likely to catch a rare Geelong game at Waverley than the heartland - but, as I said, the rest of my Family supported Hawthorn and I had relative going to this game > I, 11 years old at the time, was welcome to jump on the Hawthorn member's mini-bus down to Kardinia Park to watch the game live.
And The Cats played brilliantly for 3 and a half quarters.
But they could never quite put Hawthorn to bed.
Hawthorn were recipients of a ''deliberate out of bounds'' free kick which I had literally NEVER seen paid before in any game I had watched. They pipped us at the siren, and I had to catch that same mini-bus, now heaving with celebrating Hawthorn members, all the way back to the Hills.
1992 Grand Final vs West Coast
Up 4 goals against a worthy opponent at Half Time, I stupidly, naively thought that this was Our Time; we'd suffered a losing GF, we'd been thereabouts in 1991 ... but despite a strong '92 Home and Away campaign, West Coast always seemed to have our measure.
And yet ... the First Half in the 1992 saw Geelong eke out a pretty handy 4-goal lead at half-time. This was The One bloody WE had to put to bed. This was the one that darkened my entire Summer to come, and to set me on a path of Footballing Nihilism.
I think 1992 really affected me nearly worse than anything; I could freakin' taste that win as an 18 year old. But we all know now; Ablett, Couch, Buddha, Stoneham, Brownless, Barnes - these guys would never have their moment in the Sun.
2008 Grand Final vs Hawthorn
I can still actually barely process this loss emotionally. I've been really successful in excising it from consciousness entirely.
I went to some big Sports Club in St Kilda to watch this game on a big screen; lots of beer, packed venue.
Half way through the 2nd quarter I accidentally put my hand through a glass trophy cabinet in jubilation as GAJ kicked a goal. Like, my hand was literally dripping with blood in front of hundreds of people.
By the end of this game all of my darkest forebodings had come to fruition and I nearly got in a pointless punch-on out front of the said Sports Club with a random dude. I was in a particularly contented time of my life in late 2008, but this loss really rained on my psyche parade.
2005 Semi-Final Sydney vs Geelong
- the whole Nick Davis debacle.... I watched this one on the box; I tried to get my son, who never really embraced sports, to come and watch as Geelong marched on toward a Grand Final.
I sat the then-little fella (who is now nearly 30) on my lap; "watch this lad'' I all but said .... the first warning sign came when Stevie J failed to kill a boundary line contest - it cost us. Sydney had The Smallest Possible Pathway to victory, but, as my impressionable and already Lost Son witnessed with his own eyes, one man's Miracles is another's Curse.
I ejected him from my lap approx 25 seconds after Davis' goal, and he and I basically never spoke about footy again.
I don't wanna talk about it anymore.
I have the scars; there's genuinely some emotional difficulty in re-living the brutal Football/Life lessons Geelong handed me in my Formative Years.
For me, it is chronological; i.e. each Heartbreaking Loss logically succeeded the next in maximizing pain and heartache.
1987 - Rd 22 Geelong vs Hawthorn.
Geelong and Hawthorn have been bitter rivals for 40 years now, and those games span my adherence to the Cats.
I've mentioned this in days of yore, but the rest of my family supports Hawthorn; I stubbornly - and for a long time, seemingly foolishly - supported Geelong for reasons that are tangential even to myself. For the longest time my recalcitrance bore no fruit.
This game was particularly harsh in teaching me that there ARE NO FOOTY GODS.
Hawthorn didn't even have to show up to this game. They were assured their Top 2 spot and could neither improve nor disadvantage their position.
Geelong however, had not played Finals for 5-6 years (which spanned my time supporting them) and had to win the game to make the Final 5.
For Geographical reasons I didn't attend many games as a kid; I was more likely to catch a rare Geelong game at Waverley than the heartland - but, as I said, the rest of my Family supported Hawthorn and I had relative going to this game > I, 11 years old at the time, was welcome to jump on the Hawthorn member's mini-bus down to Kardinia Park to watch the game live.
And The Cats played brilliantly for 3 and a half quarters.
But they could never quite put Hawthorn to bed.
Hawthorn were recipients of a ''deliberate out of bounds'' free kick which I had literally NEVER seen paid before in any game I had watched. They pipped us at the siren, and I had to catch that same mini-bus, now heaving with celebrating Hawthorn members, all the way back to the Hills.
1992 Grand Final vs West Coast
Up 4 goals against a worthy opponent at Half Time, I stupidly, naively thought that this was Our Time; we'd suffered a losing GF, we'd been thereabouts in 1991 ... but despite a strong '92 Home and Away campaign, West Coast always seemed to have our measure.
And yet ... the First Half in the 1992 saw Geelong eke out a pretty handy 4-goal lead at half-time. This was The One bloody WE had to put to bed. This was the one that darkened my entire Summer to come, and to set me on a path of Footballing Nihilism.
I think 1992 really affected me nearly worse than anything; I could freakin' taste that win as an 18 year old. But we all know now; Ablett, Couch, Buddha, Stoneham, Brownless, Barnes - these guys would never have their moment in the Sun.
2008 Grand Final vs Hawthorn
I can still actually barely process this loss emotionally. I've been really successful in excising it from consciousness entirely.
I went to some big Sports Club in St Kilda to watch this game on a big screen; lots of beer, packed venue.
Half way through the 2nd quarter I accidentally put my hand through a glass trophy cabinet in jubilation as GAJ kicked a goal. Like, my hand was literally dripping with blood in front of hundreds of people.
By the end of this game all of my darkest forebodings had come to fruition and I nearly got in a pointless punch-on out front of the said Sports Club with a random dude. I was in a particularly contented time of my life in late 2008, but this loss really rained on my psyche parade.
2005 Semi-Final Sydney vs Geelong
- the whole Nick Davis debacle.... I watched this one on the box; I tried to get my son, who never really embraced sports, to come and watch as Geelong marched on toward a Grand Final.
I sat the then-little fella (who is now nearly 30) on my lap; "watch this lad'' I all but said .... the first warning sign came when Stevie J failed to kill a boundary line contest - it cost us. Sydney had The Smallest Possible Pathway to victory, but, as my impressionable and already Lost Son witnessed with his own eyes, one man's Miracles is another's Curse.
I ejected him from my lap approx 25 seconds after Davis' goal, and he and I basically never spoke about footy again.
I don't wanna talk about it anymore.
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